The Catholic Defender: Salvation Army Update and their "Diversity Training" Objective
Recently I place a blog on the accusation that the Salvation Army as gone "woke" calling for white people to apologize for being white. Considering that this was placed on Fox News, this upset my wife and I greatly. In my blog, I posted a response from the Salvation Army indicating the accusation was false and I posted this word for word. I certainly do not want to transmit false information unless there is adequate truth indicating the information was true. Since yesterday, more disturbing information has been revealed.
Here are some quotations that I am picking up:
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Salvation Army, once as American as apple pie and baseball, has gone “woke” with a new guide calling on members to have “courageous conversations about racism” and asks “white Americans” to “stop trying to be ‘colorblind.’”
Tammy Bruce of Fox News writes, "It is extremely unfortunate to see the @SalvationArmyUS get sucked into the disaster of Critical Race Theory & woke politics. Those cancers know no bounds. “This holiday season the Salvation Army wants a donation — and a 'sincere apology' for white racism”
With the dissemination of a recent Salvation Army guide titled "Let's Talk About ... Racism," the Christian organization is attempting to elicit "sincere" apologies from white people for being racist.
The following is from the "Heritage Action for America":
As Americans head out on Black Friday to make a dent in their holiday shopping lists, some are sure to come across Salvation Army volunteers ringing bells as part of the annual Red Kettle campaign. But this year, the global charitable organization wants more from its donors than a donation to the needy during the holidays. With the dissemination of a recent Salvation Army guide titled "Let's Talk About ... Racism," the Christian organization is attempting to elicit "sincere" apologies from white people for being racist.
The guide, “Let’s Talk About Racism,” created by the Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, was released in April, and is meant to provide “internal dialogue” on the issue of racism among members of the Salvation Army.
The guide, which was compiled and approved earlier this year by the International Social Justice Commission of the Salvation Army, aligns the organization with the ideology of the Black Lives Matter, antiracism, and critical race theory movements.
Defining "structural racism" as "the overarching system of racial biasing across institutions and society," the guide declares: "These systems give privileges to White people resulting in disadvantages to People Of Color."
What was once an organization with a straightforward charitable goal, for which it has received millions in U.S. government funding, appears to have become a proponent of controversial ideas including those found in the books of Ibram Kendi (whose given name is Henry Rogers) and Robin DiAngelo, both of whom are listed in the guide under the Resources, Tools and Contributors section. Also featured in that section of the guide is the New York Times' 1619 podcast, which has become the basis of some high school and collegiate instruction on critical race theory.
Between 2014-2021, the Salvation Army received in the ballpark of $10 million from CSOSA, a federal agency that supervises adults on probation, parole, and supervised release in the District of Columbia. The federal agency's mission is to "support the fair administration of justice in close collaboration with the community."
Over the course of the pandemic, the organization received another $100,000 or so in emergency funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs for homeless shelter operations.
The guide outlines various types of discussions chapter leaders can have about racism and how to operate in an actively "anti-racist" fashion. "Being anti-racist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily," according to the nearly 50-page document. "These choices require ongoing self-awareness and self-reflection as we move through life. In the absence of making anti-racist choices, we (un) consciously uphold aspects of White supremacy, White-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society. Being racist or anti-racist is not about who you are; it is about what you do."
The organization's accompanying "Study Guide on Racism" claims, "The subtle nature of racism is such that people who are not consciously racist easily function with the privileges, empowerment and benefits of the dominant ethnicity, thus unintentionally perpetuating injustice."
The guide goes on to enumerate the ways in which America remains an unjust society. Home ownership, health, education, and incarceration are some of the leading indicators of inequality due to systemic and institutional racism in American life, according to the guide.
Because of these ongoing struggles for communities of color and, specifically, blacks, the guide suggests the necessity of delivering a "sincere apology" (if you are white).
"We are all hardwired to desire justice and fairness, so the need to receive a sincere apology is necessary," reads the guide. "Perhaps you don't feel as if you personally have done anything wrong, but you can spend time repenting on behalf of the Church and asking for God to open hearts and minds to the issue of racism."
Critical race theory "has increasingly become the default ideology in our public institutions over the past decade," writes Christopher Rufo, director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute. "It has been injected into government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs, and corporate human-resources departments, in the form of diversity-training programs, human-resources modules, public-policy frameworks, and school curricula."
I've been hearing about white culture to the point of ad nauseam. So, what are some of these points that makes a white person a "racist"? The following is from Newsweek:
Rugged Individualism - Self reliance and and Independence and control of your environment.
Family Structure - A traditional family structure of a husband and wife, children.
Emphasis on Science - Objective linear thinking, Quantitative emphasis.
History - North European roots, Christian Tradition.
Protestant - Goals of hard work, work before play.
Religion - Christian norms, the Catholic Faith, no tolerance for alien gods.
Status, power, authority - Respect authority, work with pride, value of ownership.
Future Orientation - Plan for the Future, work for progress.
Time - Be on time for work.
Aesthetics - Steaks and potatoes, economic status and intellect,
Holidays - Christian Traditions.
Justice - Protect property, English common law.
Competition - Decision making, majority rules, resolve situations and problems.
Communication - Be polite, written traditions
These are but a sample of what makes you a "white racist" and so I for one at this time will not donate to the Salvation Army.
